Getting the Word out.

Cause and effect

Because there’s an overload of information learned tonight at the Science and Bible seminar held in church, I will take some time to carefully study and absorb them and hopefully be able to lay down some thoughts I’ve had while listening and participating in the lecture. More than learning something that is radically new to me, the lecture is further helping reinforce truths that I’ve already held true for myself as absolutes, which all find basis in Scripture. Anyway, that should be allotted for some time.

Repeatedly during the lecture, the idea of Causality was discussed, which is basically the relation of an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect). We all know this. It is understood that the first event is responsible for the second. Cause and effect. Something must always have happened first before you get to another state, place or event. Sometimes, that’s very easy to pinpoint, as in, fire happened because someone lit a match or a lighter or a flint. Dinner is served because somebody prepared and cooked it. The cellphone is working because it has its battery charged and functioning. Pregnancy, because obviously, sexual intercourse. Water flows from the faucet because somebody turned it on. Other times, they are harder to pinpoint and would need a thorough study and careful investigation to get to the bottom of the cause and effect. Why did this person turn out this way? There isn’t really just one answer or factor to it. What caused this person to become so violent (which is the effect)? Why did this person commit this crime? How could this angry person suddenly become so gentle? Something must have always happened first or at one point or another to get to the current place.

This is really off-topic, nothing to do with the lecture tonight, but I’m mulling over some cause-and-effect moments for me this week and the reason is simple: to understand that my actions will always have an effect, good or bad. First, we go to the shallow ones.

This week, I have been eating lots of sweets. I know as a fact that our family is predisposed to diabetes as it runs in the genes. I don’t suppose I will be a diabetic just for genes alone. It could also, in effect, be caused by my constant intake of sweets. I’m not borderline, but I do know from my recent fast blood sugar test that I’m on the higher scale. I have been eating lots of sweets this week, and just last night, because I was lazy to cook a proper meal for myself, I ended up eating chocolate cookies and drinking fruit juice which all resulted to this morning’s very, very bad, sore throat. I woke up around 2:00 am and I was basically coughing and my throat felt very sore. Directly I could tell that what caused this was my intake of sugar beyond what was normal. Cause and effect.

Case two. My eyes are also very dry. My aunt who is an eye doctor, always tells me that my lack of sleep, and my constant use of the computer or smart phone even at night, not giving my eyes the proper rest they need, all lead to dry eyes. It’s gotten very bad that I have a chronic eye infection, sort of like a sty that doesn’t appear to be one, but is actually is and just hasn’t fully manifested. My dry eyes are also caused by my constant late sleeping. I find myself always sleeping way past midnight despite not having anything productive to do anyway. Why is that?!

Now onto to the more, in-depth observations of cause and effect. If you have been reading my blog for some time, you would notice that I keep mentioning the challenges of training new staff at work. Primary question should be: why is there a constant changing of staff? This month alone, we had 4 different secretaries whose average period stay is 4 days. I kid you not. The last four secretaries I trained didn’t even last a whole week and I was becoming impatient and upset because then I had to do a new set of training, and I can’t seem to get to the bottom of why they would give up so easily and why they don’t or won’t stay long. The list is long. The level of comprehension and education in the province is really way different from the city, so the adjustment of local employees to a fast-paced, demanding job like ours was much slower. They got overwhelmed with the amount of work. They couldn’t cope with the demands of the job. They weren’t made for customer service and the ugly side of it (handling customer complaints). But if I were really, really honest with myself, and if I were to deduce the cause and effect of why they quit, I think the answers are coming out plain and clear. I’ve pretty much sat myself down, thought it over as carefully and as objectively as I can, and with a heavy heart I admitted to myself that it was basically because of the way I was managing them and the pressures I put on them at work. It is one thing to recognize people’s skill level. It is another to work with and manage that. Jem always tells me that the biggest reason employees quit is because of the boss or the manager. I kind of get that because when I resigned from my previous job, a big factor of that decision was because of my boss.

I’ve been reflecting on this for a long time and I think I always knew it but I just didn’t have the heart to admit it. I didn’t know how to manage people whose skill level fail my expectations. Instead of encouraging them to try harder, to improve and rise above their shortcomings, I repeatedly put them down by adding more pressure to work better, be better, be smarter. My friend Hana already told me this a long time ago but even now I’m still trying to learn how to do it. This is one of those examples where it’s not always easy to pinpoint the cause and effect, even for me. Why am I so strict and critical of people? What caused me to be this way? Why am I short on patience with people who aren’t meeting my expectations? Why can’t I be more considerate or patient or even forgiving of mistakes? Shouldn’t I, as a Christian, be the first to understand what it means to make mistakes and be forgiven for them? In fact, shouldn’t I be more gracious because God himself has been gracious to me, and has even no longer counted my sins and have blotted them out on account of Jesus, forever?

I’m still learning this. The staff I have now, Darelle, has been with me for more than four days, thank God. Central to that, I think, is that I’m finally slowly realizing what has been causing people to quit. It’s humbling and I write this all now as a public testimony that I do intend to work at my shortcomings, by God’s grace, and always come to that realization that the first great cause in my life –sin, was forgiven on the cross 2,000 years ago. The effect of that? I have been forgiven for all my sins and I have eternal life in Christ. Everything that we do in life has a corresponding effect. Every action, a reaction. Sometimes, it’s easy to pinpoint what causes what, and sometimes, as in this case, it requires a humbling breaking down of events in your life.

Would you say a prayer for me? That I would learn how best to manage people, in the way that God would want me to and in the way that would glorify Him? Would you pray that I would be humble and submit myself to His Lordship, be accepting of my faults, and coming to Him for guidance? Would you also pray that in the days and weeks that I would train Darelle, that I will be ever-Patient, with the capital P, and that in the process, I may grow as a better follower of Christ?